Elevator control



Dec. 2, 1958 W. A. NIKAZY ET AL ELEVATOR CONTROL Filed Aug. 30, 1956 5 Sheets-Sheet l 64 e AUTOMATIC 63 0UP PEAK l I I o 0 o PEAK wow/v PEAK O O O O 3 A I //V7'ERM/T7'EN7' G 62 SERVICE CAR El $008 sou? El (JAR 3 ZZZ Z E BASEMENT IN V EN TORS WAL 75/? A. MKAZY BY PAUL E DEL AMA TEE ATTORNEYS Dec. 2, 1958 w. A. NIKAZY ET AL 2,862,576

ELEVATOR CONTROL Filed Aug. 30, 1956 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Dec. 2, 1958 I w. A. NIKAZY ET AL 2,862,576

ELEVATOR CONTROL Filed Aug. 30, 1956 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 w 2/ 8 FLOR Hug/0,22

23 7 FLOR 25 6 FLOR GROUND FLOOR f 2 28 WALTER A. NKAZY PAUL F DiAMATER fi 9. E INVENTOIQS A TTORNE Dec. 2, 1958 Filed Aug. 50. 1956 W. A. NIKAZY ET AL ELEVATOR CONTROL 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 05A RE W &3 CBSL INVENTORS 44L 7E A. IV/KAZ) PAUL F. DELAMATER ATTORNEYS United States Patent ELEVATOR CONTROL Walter A. Nikazy and Paul F. De Lamater, Toledo, Ohio, assignors to Toledo Scale Corporation, a corporation of Ohio Application August 30, 1956, Serial No. 607,178 16 Claims. (Cl. 187-259) This invention relates to elevator systems and particularly to systems having a plurality of cars wherein at least one car ofiers service different from that offered by another.

The elevator service required in a structure is often predominately of one class which can be satisfied by a bank of elevators operating according to known patterns. A limited amount of special service is sometimes desirable in a structure of this form, the service demand being insufiicient in magnitude to warrant a separate car dedicated exclusively to its satisfaction. One means of fulfilling a service requirement of this type is to combine the special service function with the normal operating pattern in a single group of elevators. Advantageously, this can be accomplished by assigning particular cars of the group to perform this special service when called upon and otherwise operate with the remainder of the group in the normal manner.

Heretofore, elevator systems have been proposed wherein one car is intended for special service such as high priority response, as for the executives in an office building, or for freight or building maintenance service, wherein a chosen car is provided with an indicator which is actuated by a calling mechanism separate from the calling means for normal service, whereby an attendant is notified of the special service demand. If he deems it desirable, the attendant may respond to a call from that source in preference to the normal calls. It has also been proposed that a duplicate set of calling means, ordinarily hall call registering means, be arranged whereby all cars respond to one means and only service.

cars respond to the other. In this latter instance a special service car in traveling to a special service call will respond to normal calls, thus it will be seen that the special service car may olier slower service than the normal cars and that it will receive a portion of the normal traffic while so responding to the detriment of both classes of service.

In accordance with the above one object of the present invention is to increase the efliciency of utilization of a bank of elevators.

Another object is to facilitate the rendering of special service by a group of elevators.

Another object is to offer special elevator service at times when it will disrupt normal service the least.

Another object is to maintain special service and normal elevator service separate while simultaneously offering both.

These objects are attained with this invention by providing normal and special service controls which can both be operative at certain times to maintain normal service by the cars of a group until there is a demand for special service. Upon the registration of such a demand, a car is isolated from the group operation and operated exclusively to satisfy the special service demand while the other cars continue to offer normal service and are non-responsive to the demands for special service. This mode of operation, when a call for special service ice is efiected, is realized by preventing the special car from responding to further hall calls, operating the car signals to discourage the entry of additional passengers, and responding to the car calls then in registration to empty the car. The empty car then proceeds to the floor seeking special service and operates to satisfy that service. A timer fixes the interval which the car remains on special service and causes the return of the car to normal service at the expiration of that interval. Reset of the timer occurs each time a special service call is registered or a passenger enters or leaves the car.

Since the special and normal services are isolated from each other it is desirable in certain instances as where the special service is for freight or building maintenance to limit its availability, for example to those periods when normal service demand is low. Further the signalling and indicating systems for the two types of service are isolated from each other to expedite each and avoid confusion in the use of the cars. An incident of this isolation is the disabling of the normal call reset mechanism for a car while on special service whereby a special service stop will not cancel a normal call at that floor.

One feature of this invention involves providing a multicar elevator system which operates without attendants with means for isolating the operation of one car from that of another to provide special service while that other car continues operating in the normal pattern of the system, when a call for special service is registered.

Another feature resides in means restricting the availability of a car for special service to certain conditions within the elevator system.

Another feature comprises means disabling the normal operating indicators and the response to normal service calls by a car which has been transferred to special service.

A further feature is the utilization of means in a multicar automatic elevator system for indicating the availability of onev of the cars which ordinarily operates according to the normal operating pattern of the system for special service departing from that pattern.

The above and additional objects and features of this invention will be appreciated from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. I is a diagrammatic representation of an elevator system according to this invention;

Fig. II is an across the line wiring diagram of a group of circuits which will initiate the transfer of a car from the normal operating control to a modified operating control to provide special service by that car;

Fig. III is an across the line wiring diagram of a circuit which cooperates with those of' Fig. II to sense the position of the car with respect to the location where special service is to be provided;

Fig. IV is an indicator circuit for special service;

Fig. V is an across the line wiring diagram showing a portion of the car call registering and control circuits employed in normal operation of the system and the means modifying those circuits under special service operation;

Fig. VI is a reset circuit for the car call registers showing the elements utilized under special service operation;

Fig. VII is a starting circuit as modified for special service operation;

Fig. VIII is a circuit establishing the direction of travel for a car under special service operation; and

Fig. IX is a fragment of a car travel indicator circuit.

Discussion of the invention has been facilitated by employing a marginal index with each of the above across the line wiring diagrams wherein the position of elements within a horizontal zone extending across the page has been identified by a line number in the left-hand column to the right of the circuit. Operating coils within the numbered zone are identified by their reference characters in the next column to the right. The zones within which the contacts operated by those coils are located are set forth in the extreme right-hand column. To aid further in the understanding of this invention the zone numbers of the back contacts, those opened when the coil is energized, are underlined while those of the front contacts, those closed while the coil is energized, are not.

The present invention is applicable to many elevator systems capable of operating without attendants, accordingly, in the interest of clarity and in order to emphasize the invention, only those elements of a typical automatic elevator control system utilized by the illustrative embodiment have been illustrated. Further the circuits have been stripped of many of the refinements which do not constitute elements of this invention. Hence, it is to be recognized that a practical elevator system employing this invention would ordinarily utilize circuits of much greater complexity than those illustrated. For example, several of the illustrated circuits would be duplicated in a practical system at those floors where special service is available or where a plurality of cars are available for special service.

The present invention is described and illustrated as utilized in a two car system serving a structure having ten landings, however, it is to be understood that its principles and features are applicable to systems with greater numbers of cars and other service requirements. The normal operation illustrated provides passenger service and one car can be shifted to provide freight service, hence, its availability is restricted to those hours when there is a low level of passenger traffic. The special service might as well be given a higher priority than the general service, as where one car is assigned to executives, in which case it would be desirable to shift the availability of the special service or make it universally available.

The following presentation will be better appreciated by considering the mode of presentation generally employed. In those instances involving the duplication of the same or essentially the same equipment at each landing of the system only exemplary elements are shown, thus, the landings and hall call buttons of Fig. I are shown for the two top and bottom landings and a representative intermediate landing. Hall call registering, hall call resetting and stopping circuits are shown for representative floors in Fig. II, the registering and resetting circuits including those for basement, ground, seventh and eighth floors while only the stopping contacts of the ground and seventh floors are shown. Figs. III, IV, V and VI are also only fragmentary and in general show only the elements of the two landings at the limits of car travel.

Operating coils are represented as circles with identifying reference characters located either within or adjacent them. The contacts operated by the coils have been designated by the same reference characters as their actuating coils. For convenience the relay and other element designations and their names are listed below in three groups comprising those which are duplicated for the several floors, those other relays whose operating coils are shown, and the remaining relay actuated contacts whose actuating coils have not been shown.

First, consider the relays and elements which are present at each of the several floors and are designated by the inclusion of a floor numeral or letter as B for basement, G for ground floor and 1 through 8 for the eight numbered floors in the respective reference character. The elements for the seventh floor include, for example:

4 C7 car button C7D special service down hall call relay C7L car button latch coil C7U special service down hall call relay L7D down hall call register light L7U up hall call register light SCD7 special service down hall call button SCU7 special service up hall call button Those relays other than the above whose actuating. coils have been shown comprise:

CB car signal direction relay (call above) CBA car call indication relay CBD car signal direction relay (call below) CC special service control relay CHC special service control relay CHT special service timer CTO special service throwover switch DL car direction determining relay (downward) HD special service call position relay (call below car) HU special service call position relay (call above car) S landing signal stopping relay SC car signal stopping relay UL car direction determining relay (upward) Those relay contacts whose actuating coils are notshown include:

BK brake relay G car door control relay H2 off peak program relay PCA photocell relay RB car button reset relay RL direction throwover relay TO attendant-automatic throwover switch TR starting time relay Referring now to the drawings, the exemplary elevator group utilizing this invention as shown in Fig. I is pro vided with a conventional control which includes an up and a down hall call registering means 61, conveniently a button controlled switch, at each floor intermediate the limits of travel, an up hall call register at the lowermost landing and a down hall call register at the uppermost landing. It also includes control means 62 offering a number of operating programs which can be individually introduced in any convenient manner such as by a manual selector switch 63, a time controlled switch (not shown) or means sensing the service demand (not shown), e. g. number of calls. Since the system is calculated to serve passengers primarily, and its special service is freightservice by the second car of a pair, that service is available only when the off peak operating program is in effect.

The controller 62 is connected to the floor selector machines 64 and 65 of the individual cars by means of cables 66 and 67 schematically represented as single lines. These floor selectors may be of several well known constructions, for convenience in discussion, the type assumed below includes a multiplicity of vertical lanes of contacts 68 arranged in horizontal rows to form a grid wherein the contacts in a lane are connected to like functioning circuits for the various floors served by the elevator car while each row of contacts is for the circuits common to a floor or landing served by the car. A crosshead 69 carrying brushes or contact shoes for each lane of contacts is moved in a manner corresponding to car movement whereby the movement of a car in approaching a given floor brings brushes for stopping circuits into engagement with stopping circuit contacts for that floor to stop the car. Similarly, other circuits are activated and deactivated as the car progresses.

When the system is on the off peak program, contact H2 at line 2 of Fig. II is closed. If the car arranged for special service is operating unattended, as when attendant throwover switch T0 at line 3 of Fig. II is closed, the car caube assigned to special service by operating a special service call registering means 70 which for freight service may be inco-nspicuously located at the floors where that service can be furnished. These special call registersare arranged in a separate riser of up and down hall buttons SCUB to SCU7 and SCDG to SCDS, one on each floor having the normal hall call registering means in the example as shown in Figs. I and II. Only the special up hall call buttons for the basement SCUB, the ground floor SCUG, and the seventh floor SCU7, and the special down hall call buttons for the ground floor SCDG, the seventh floor SCD7 and the eighth floor SCDS are shown to reduce the size of the drawings although corresponding buttons for the intermediate floors can be provided.

Consider the operation of the system with car #2 on unattended operation and the entire group of cars on the off peak program at the instant a freight call is registered for the down direction at the seventh floor by depressing button SCD7. Assume that there are passengers present in car #2 and that they have registered car calls in the usual manner on car buttons shown in Fig. V. Relay CD7 is energized from E2, through lead 81, coil C7D, SCD7, leads 82 and 83, and contacts TO and H2 to E1. Seventh floor down contact 87 on the down lane of hall signal contacts of the floor selector machine is activated by closing contact C7D at line 9.

Switchover of car #2 to freight service is initiated by the opening of contact C7D at line 24 of Fig. III to drop out either the call above or call below signal position indicator relay EU or HD depending upon the car position. If the car is below the seventh floor, crosshead brush 91 for the lane of special service call position contacts 93 through 97 of the floor selector maintains relay HD energized from E1 through 92, brush 91, contact 94 for the ground floor of the call position lane, contacts CGD and CBU, lead 98 and the relay coil to E2. Since contact C733 is open to isolate relay HU from brush 91, that relay drops out to indicate a special service call above the car. This call above closes back contact HU at line 8 of Fig. II to energize special service control relay CHC from E1 through contacts H2 and TO, lead 83, contact HU, leads 86 and 84, coil CHC, lead 85, and lead 81 to E2. Relay CHC operates a holding circuit from lead 83 to lead 84 through normally closed contact CHT of the special service timer and contact CHC at line 9. It also operates special service throwover switch CTO by closing contact CHC at line 11 to complete a circuit from line E1 through contact CHC, limit contact 101 of the motor driven throwover CTO, leads 85 and S1 to E2. When the throwover switch has reached its limit, switch 101 is opened to deenergize it and 102 is closed to enable it to be reset as special service control relay is dropped out and back contact CHC, now open at line 10, is permitted to close.

The operation of special service throwover switch CTO actuates contacts to disable the circuits which maintain car #2 responsive to normal hall calls and operate the control circuits associated therewith by opening leads 121 and 122 to the floor selector machine brushes (not shown) to the lanes of normal up hall signal contacts and normal down hall signal contacts (not shown). Thus car #2 is rendered non-responsive to the normal hall call registering means upon the registration of a special service call.

The operation of CTO also disconnects car #2 from the dispatching means by operation of contacts which are not shown other than symbolically in Fig. VII. Thus the dispatching circuits are by-passed by a CTO front contact completing a circuit from K through lead 123 to lead 124, and the car starting circuits in lead 125 are energized by operation of car call indication relay contact CBA made effective upon the opening of back contact CTO between leads 123 and 125.

Normal hall call signal resetting circuits (not shown) are' deactivated by opening the circuits at back contact CTO to leads 127 and 128 at line 5 of Fig. II. These leads. extend to the brushes (not shown) engaging the up and down hall call signal resetting contact lanes (not shown) of the floor selector for car #2. Contact CTO at line 6 in lead 129 to brush 130, performing a special service function paralleling those of the circuits including leads 127 and 123, is closed to activate the special service call registering means while other means are provided preventing the operation of the resetting means of the normal call registering means at the instant the special service call is registered and throughout the period the car is assigned to the special service.

The passengers who entered the car believing it to be on normal service will be unaware of the above operation preparing the car for special service except perhaps for the display of an indicator within the car arranged todiscourage the entry of additional passengers while the car is assigned to freight service. This indicator can be in the form of an illuminated sign reading freight service only, prominently displayed such that it would be difiicult for intending passengers to fail to see it. A CTO front contact (not shown) can be employed to light an indicator of this nature when the special service throwover operation is initiated and maintain it illuminated during the special service interval.

As is shown in Fig. IX the travel indicator for the car is electrically actuated by engaging the contacts 201, 202, 203 and 204 on the floor selector machine with brushes 205 and 206 as the crosshead proceeds along the contact lanes in synchronism with car movement. These indicators, which may be lanterns 207 in the halls served by the cars, indicate the approach of a car and its direction of travel by illumination of either an up or down lantern as the travel indicator contacts on the floor selector are closed. Travel indicators can be in other forms such as a car position indicator, as a lane of floor numbers corresponding to car position which may be displayed individually at the landings, or combinations of direction and position indicators, and can be located at other than a landing where service is provided, for example, in a dispatchers station.

In order to avoid confusion of passengers and the intermixing of freight and passenger service to as great an extent as possible, the travel indicator operation is curtailed as by disabling the normal indicating means for the special service car while it is assigned to that service. Curtailment in the form of disabling the hall lanterns for that car can be accomplished by a CTO back contact in lead 208 to brushes 205 and 206 engaging the up and down signal lanes respectively of the floor selector for that car. Thus, the circuit ordinarily completed during' upward travel through front contact UL, brush 205, contact 201 of the up lane and the up hall lantern 207, and its parallel circuit for the down lane through front contact DL, effective when the car is set for downward travel, are disabled by opening a single CTO contact to provide means disabling the travel indicators for car #2 while the special service controls are operating.

Those passengers in the special service car at the time it is being switched over from normal service are carried to their destinations, as indicated by the call they registered on the car buttons, before the car is permitted to respond to the special service call. Special service control relay CC at line 8 of Fig. II insures that the demands special service begins.

though leads 85 and 86 are activated, since brake relay contact BK is open while the car is in motion, and car call relay contact CBA is open as long as a car call remains to be answered. While CC is deenergized, the car stopping relay S at line 12 cannot be energized from brushes 88 or 89 of the special service hall call stopping contacts since contacts CC at lines 12 and 13 are open to break the circuit to those brushes. Thus the hall call stopping circuits for both the normal and special hall calls are disabled from the instant of registration of the special service call until the car calls are canceled. On the other hand, if no car calls are registered when a special service hall call is made, relay CC pulls in when the brake contact BK is closed as when the car stops at a terminal.

The simplified car call registering and stopping circuits are shown in Fig. V. In normal operation the car is stopped in response to car calls by a car call stopping relay SC when it is energized by having its brush 161 on the floor selector crosshead engage an activated contact in the car call stopping lane of contacts. These contacts are activated by registering a car call as by depressing a car button to close a circuit to lead 156. Consider, for example, that a passenger in the car at the time the freight service was called for had registered a car call for the ground floor while the car was above that floor by depressing button CG, whereby contact 162 of the car call stopping lane of contact on the floor selector is activated. The car continues to function in its normal manner as regards the car call since car call relay CBD is energized by the call below the car through car position sensing means to energize CBA which prevents operation of CC and thus maintains the simulated car call circuits connected to the CC contact in line 32 of Fig. V deactivated. This call below the car completes a circuit from lead 156 through lead 165, closed contact CG, to contacts 163 and 162. From contact 163 a circuit is established through conductive contact shoe 151 to contact 164, coil CBD, contacts CB and UL, lead 157 and lead 152. Similar circuits can be traced through relay CB and the upper segment of contact shoe 151 for a car call above the car through lead 156 a call button, contact 155 or 159, shoe 151, contact 154, coil CB, contacts CBD and DL, lead 153 and lead 152.

The location of a car call with respect to the car position is sensed by the above circuit through the operation of relay CB for a call above or CBB for a call below by virtue of the contact shoe 151. This shoe, only portions of which are shown, includes two conductive segments. It is moved in synchronism with the car and is arranged to bridge all contacts of the lane for those floors on either side of the car with either its upper or lower segment. A non-conductive gap is maintained between the segments corresponding to the car position so that it registers with the contacts of the floor at which the car is located. The upper segment of shoe 151 engages all contacts in the lane for floors above the car while the segment below engages the contacts of all fioors below the car whereby the activation of anyone of those engaged contacts operates the appropriate car button relay.

Operation of either CB or CBD energizes car button auxiliary relay CBA as explained above and closes contacts at lines 41 and 44 of the direction determining relay circuits of Fig. VIII. These contacts are ineffective in normal operation since front contacts CTO in series therewith are open. However, upon registration of a special service call, front contacts CTO at lines 41 and 44 close and back contact CTO at line 43 opens. This disconnects the car direction throwover relay contacts RL from their control of the up and down direction determining relays UL and DL and shifts this control to the car button relays so that a call above a car will cause relay CB to energize UL to set the car for upward travel while a call below sets the car direction relay DL for downward travel by virtue of contact CBD.

Car calls are effective while the car is stopped to set; up the required trip direction, and travel is restrictedto a single direction for a trip by the interlocking ClICllllS;

shown to the left of the CB and CBD coils between lines 33 and 36 of Fig. V. Thus, at a stop a passenger can enter and register a car call which will energize one or the other of relays CB and CBD locking out its corresponding relay until it has been dropped out. Thus for a call below, as assumed, CBD locks out CB by opening the CBD contact in lead 153 at line 33 and energizes DL by closing contact CBD at line 44 of Fig. VIII to complete a circuit 184, DL, 182, CBD, CTO, and 185.

The car call registering means are maintained closed during a trip in a given direction by their respective electromagnetic latches CBSL, CGL, C1L, C2L, C7L and C8L as shown in Fig. VI. These latches are energized throughout the normal operation of the car from a direct current source through contacts CTO and RB to the They hold the car button;

serially arranged latch coils. contacts closed once they are depressed to bring them within the holding field of these coils. Reset of the car buttons normally is realized by momentarily opening contact RB of a car button reset relay (not shown) which is energized as the direction throwover relay RL (not shown) operates. The registration of a special service call renders the car button latch circuits subject to reset by the operation of CBA by opening contact CTO in parallel therewith, since the dropping of CBA while back. contact CTO of the special service relay is open also opens the latch coil circuit.

As the car stops at the ground floor to answer the car call, if no car calls for landings below the car are registered, the circuit energizing relay CBD is broken by shoe' 151 since its gap is positioned opposite contact 163. R6. lay CBD drops out as a result and deenergizes relay CBA whereby the car buttons are reset and the circuit to coil CC is partially completed at line 8 of Fig. II.

A lockout circuit is provided between car button relays CB and CBD to prevent the energization of one of those relays as the other drops out in the event other car buttons are closed. Contacts DL and UL provide this lockout by being maintained operative for a fixed interval after the car stops under normal operation by a delay in the operation of the RL contacts in lead 183 and 182. When the car is in its special service program, a TR contact of the start time relay delays this dropout. Relay TR is not shown since it is conventional in automatic elevator controls, in operation, it closes while the car is moving and is deenergized when the car stops. Relay TR is of the slow dropout type employed to establish a loading interval or standing time at the floors where stops are made. The maintenance of the TR contact in closed position holds a circuit for the direction determining relay through lead 188 and contact UL therein to lead 190 and contact TR for coil UL and similarly for coil DL through lead 189, contact DL, lead 190 and contact TR.

Thus while contact CBD at line 33 may close at the end of a down trip before car button reset contact CBA in Fig. VI is opened, car call circuits above the car are prevented from energizing relay CB by the substantial delay in the closing of contact DL at line 33.

When the car stops at the last car call to release relay CBA and brake relay, contact BK at line 8 drops out, and relay CC is energized to pull in a holding circuit at line 7 and partially complete the circuits to the special service hall call brushes 88 and 89 of the lanes of up and down contacts at lines 12 and 13 of Fig. II. Relay CC also closes a contact at line 32 of Fig. V to render the special service call position relays HU and HD elfective in energizing the appropriate car button relay and thereby instituting car travel in the proper direction to respond to the special service call.

At this instant the car is stopped at the ground floor, the car call demand for normal service has been met,

and the special service call at the seventh floor has dropped out relay HU establishing a circuit in Fig. V from lead 156 through contacts CC, CTO, and HU at line 32, contact 159, shoe 151, contact 154 coil of relay CB, contacts CBD and DL, and leads 153 and 152. In effect, an up car call is registered by the special service call registered above the car to operate the up direction relay UL through the circuit in Fig. VIII from 184 through UL, 183, 187, CE and GT to 185 and thereby set the car for upward travel. The travel is initiated by closing contact CBA in Fig. VII in response to the energizing of relay CBA by the closing of contact CB at line 39 of Fig. V.

Up direction relay UL closes its contact at line 13 of Fig. II to activate lead 71 of the special service up hall call circuit. As the car and thus the crosshead on the floor selector reaches the seventh floor, brush 130 of the special service hall call reset circuit engages contact 133 of the floor selector to energize the reset coil of relay C7D and permit back contact C7D of Fig. III to close. Brush 91 has engaged contact 96 in the seventh floor row of contacts on the floor selector to energize relay HU of Fig. III at this time, and since C7D is closed, relay HD remains energized. Thus both contact HU at line 32 and contact HD at line 37 of Fig. V are opened and relay CB drops out deenergizing relay CBA. This completes a stopping circuit for the car by energizing stopping relay S through a circuit from E1, brake relay contact BK, which is closed while the car is running, and stopping coil S at line 12, contacts UL, CTO and CC at line 13, contacts HU and CBA at line 12, lead 81 and E2 to stop the car. The stopping circuits employed for special service are the same as those for normal service, relay S functioning identically in both cases. Relay S is latched in at line 14 until the car is stopped and contact BK of the brake is opened. It may be noted that contact HD in line 12 performs the same function as HU in line 12 when the car is traveling downward to pick up a special service up hall call.

The arrival of the car at the seventh floor energizes both car position relays HU and HD to initiate operation of the special service interval timer CHT since its energizing circuit is completed at line 10. This timer is of the slow pick up type. It limits the interval over which the special service program remains in effect in the absence of some indication of special service demand or ultilization of the car. The interval can be chosen to fit the needs of the building and program, in the example a 15 or 20 second interval is considered adequate since it is desired to provide sufiicient time to make a trip between the extremes of travel. Upon expiration of the interval, the car is returned to normal service by opening CHT back contact at line 9 to deenergize special service control relays CC and CI-IC and thereby return special service throwover switch CTO to its initial position and release the car to the normal service program.

A photocell relay contact PCA is shown in the circuit to timer CHT to illustrate one reset means which opcrates in response to the utilization of the car within the given interval. Thus, the partially timed out timer is reset when a photoelectric cell senses a change in illumination as would be the case where an object passes through the entry to a car having a cell at the entry. These sensing circuits might be expanded beyond the photocell PCA and special service hall call means HU and HD which are shown. Thus, the timer could be deenergized while a car call was registered by placing a normally closed CBA contact in series with contacts PCA, HU and HD, or a pair of photocells arranged to operate in sequence as an object passes through the entry could be employed to reset the timer when an object enters and permit the timer to continue timing out when an object leaves the car.

Assume that a passenger enters the car at the seventh floor and registers a call for the basement by depressing car button CBS at line 37 of Fig. V. This energizes the car button relay CBD for calls below the car to energize the down direction determining relay DL thereby setting the car for downward travel. CBD also energizes CBA to energize the car button latch circuit of Fig. VI and the car starting circuits of Fig. VII so that the car travels downward. When the car reaches the floor for which the car call is registered, the car call stopping relay SC is energized to operate the car stopping circuits controlled thereby under normal car operation and halt the car. This circuit is completed from lead 152 through coil SC, brush 161, floor selector contact 166 in the case of a basement call, lead 167, contact CBS of the latched in car button, lead 168 and lead 156. When the car arrives at the basement shoe 151 no longer connects contacts 158 and 164 hence, CBD and CBA are dropped out immediately, and after the interval determined by slow dropout of start time relay contact TR at line 44 of Fig. VIII, DL drops out to release the circuits for starting and determining the direction of travel of the car. CBA in resetting the car buttons permits contact CBS to open thereby dropping out car call stopping relay SC.

Only a single car call for a floor below was assumed above. It is to be understood that several such calls might be registered, in which case the car would stop at each in order of its location in the hatchway with respect to car travel, following the stopping sequence outlined above and starting a suflicient interval thereafter to permit loading or unloading of the car. This interval is introduced in the starting circuit by a TR contact (not shown) of the start time relay as is conventional. Further the operation on an upward trip parallels that described and need not be described here.

Assume that a special service call is registered at the ground floor before the car reaches that floor in its above described basement trip and further that it is a down call. It is registered as described above by closing hall button SCDG to energize CGD thereby activating contact of the down contact lane of special service hall call contacts on the floor selector so that car stopping relay S is energized when brush 89 engages contact 90. Contact CGD of line 29 will be opened to drop out relay HD, since the car is above the call, and to reset timer CHT by opening contact HD at line 10. Thus, as brush 89 is carried down the special service hall call contact lane and engages activated contact 90, stopping relay S is energized from E1 through contact BK, coil S, contact DL (the car is set for downward travel), contacts CTO and CC, brush 89, contacts 90 and CGD, and lead 81 to E2, and the car is stopped at the ground floor. The CBS circuit remains closed thereby maintaining CBA energized during this stop and holding the circuit of Fig. VII to the car starting circuits closed. Accordingly, the car starting circuits initiate the starting of the car downward an interval determined by the starting time relay TR mentioned above which also controls these circuits ina conventional manner.

In the event the ground floor call assumed above had been for travel in an upward direction, it would have been ineffective in interrupting the travel of the car on its downward special service trip. An up special service hall call at the ground floor would be registered by closing contact SCUG at line 3 to energize relay CGU closing contact CGU at line 9 to activate contact and opening contact CGU at line 28 of Fig. III to drop out relay HD while the car is above the ground floor. Contact HD at line 12 would be opened toisolate, in cooperation with open contact UL of the up direction relay at line 13, brush 88 from the stopping relay S. Thus, when the down traveling car reached the ground floor or any other floor at which an up special service hall call was registered, no stopping circuit could be completed by the engagement of brush 88 with stopping contact 105, and the car would be permitted to continue its trip until it encountered a special service down hall call or a floor for which a car call had been registered.

Reset of a special service hall call for service in the opposite direction from that in which a car is traveling is prevented by the parallel combination of stopping relay front contact S and gate relay back contact G shown at line 5 in the portion of the hall call reset circuit common to both normal and special service hall call reset circuits. While the car gate is closed, the gate relay (not shown) is energized and contact G at line 5' is open. When the car is at a floor and the car gate is open contact G is closed hence any special service call registered at a floor while the car is available at that floor is canceled immediately by the completed reset circuit. The stopping relay contact S closes only when the stopping relay is energized. It has been pointed out above that the stopping relay cannot be energized by a hall call for service in the direction opposite that of car travel hence the circuit remains deactivated due to the open G and S contacts while the car travels past the floor.

' It will be noted that the reset circuits illustrated are arranged to set both up and down special servicevhall calls at the same contact of the floor selector. This may be undesirable in some installations since it permits a call to be canceled without being served in the event that special service hall calls are registered for both directions of travel. If desired this may be avoided by employing separate lanes of reset contacts on the floor selector or including front contacts for the direction determining relays UL or DL respectively between each up call or down call reset coil and the single reset contact of the floor selector for that floor.

The freight service contemplated for the system of the example was not deemed to warrant the complication necessary to avoid the double reset of hall calls since it is provided with call register indicators serving the dual function of indicating the registration of a call and the availability of a car for freight service. These call registers are shown in Fig. IV. They comprise call register lights, advantageously individual to each call register as by being located within translucent special service hall buttons for each register and illuminated by completing the circuit to an appropriate power source by a front contact of the corresponding hall register. Thus, energization of relay CGU closes contact CGU in Fig. IV to illuminate light LGU within button SCUG. Since relay CGU is operative only when freight service is available, when contacts H2 and T0 are closed, the failure of a depressed freight hall call button to light indicates that freight service is not available. Similarly, the resetting of relay CGU by a downward traveling car extinguishes lamp LGU, indicating that the call should be reregistered after the car has departed from the ground floor.

Having passed a special service hall call for travel in the direction opposite that in which the car is traveling without canceling that call, and having completed its trip in that direction, the car is reset to serve the passed call. As the car passed the call the call position relays operated, in the assumed case the car passed from above the call where HD was deenergized and HU energized to below the call where HD was energized and HU deenergized. This broke the circuit energizing relay CBD in the car button circuit of Fig. V in response to ball calls since back contact HD at line 37 was opened and permitted CBD to drop out when the car responded to its lowest car call. As discussed above, the direction controlling circuits of Fig. VIII are held in after the car button circuits dropout by start time relay contact TR at line 44. After the start time interval has expired, relay DL will drop out permitting back contact DL at line 33 of Fig. V to close completing a circuit to energize relay CB through closed back contact HU at line 32 of deenergized car position relay HU. Energization of relay CB energizes relay CBA to close starting contact CBA of Fig. VII and relay UL to set the car for upward travel at line 41 of Fig. VIII.

As the car reaches the up call, brush 88 of Fig. 11

engages the up special service hall call contact, contact -for the ground floor, a circuit is completed through without departing from its spirit and scope. The restriction of the above illustration to an uncomplicated and straight forward system without elaboration is for the purposes of clarity and emphasis of the invention and is not to be interpreted in a limiting sense.

Having described the invention, we claim:

1 1. An elevator system including first and second cars serving a plurality of floors, a first control means for said first and second cars, a special service control for said second car, a first hall call registering means located at each of a plurality of floors and cooperating with said first control means, a second hall call registering means located at floors having said first hall call registering means and operating said special service control, means responsive to said second hall call registering means to render said second car nonresponsive to said first control means and first hall call registering means, a car travel indicator for each of said cars, means disabling said indicator for said second car while said special service control is operating, means resetting said first call registering means when one of said cars responds thereto, and means preventing the operation of said resetting means by said second car while said special service control is operating.

2. An elevator system including a group of cars, a plurality of landings served by said cars, first means controlling the operating program for a plurality of said cars, first manually operable, hall call registering means located at given landings served by and common to the cars subject to said controlling means, said first control means being responsive to said first call registering means, second manually operable, hall call registering means located at certain of said given landings, and, a second means responsive to the operation of said second call registering means for controlling the operation of one of said plurality of cars controlled by said first means and preventing the response of that car to said first control means.

3. An elevator system including first and second cars, a plurality of landings served by said cars, first control means establishing a primary operating program for said first and second cars, a first manually operable, call registering means locatedat given landings served by said first and second cars for actuating said first control means, second control means establishing a secondary operating program for said second car and preventing said second car from responding to said first call registering means, and second manually operable, call registering means located at certain of said given landings for actuating said second control means.

4-. An elevator system including first and second cars serving a plurality of floors, a first call registering means for said first and second cars, car call registering means.

for said first and second cars, a special service call regis-' tering means for said second car, means responsive to' a special service call to render said second car nonresponsive to said first call registering means, and meanscausing said second car to respond to a special service call only subsequent to its response to the car calls registeredtherein.

5. An elevator system including first and second cars serving a plurality of floors, a manually operable, first hall call registering means for said first and second cars,

a manually operable, special service hall call registering means for said second car, means assigning said second car to special service in response to a special service hall call, and means rendering said second car nonresponsive to said first hall call registering means while it is assigned to special service.

6. An elevator system including first and second cars serving a plurality of floors, a manually operable, first call registering means for said first and second cars, a manually operable, special service call registering means for said second car, and means responsive to a special service call to render said second car nonresponsive to said first call registering means.

7. An elevator system including first and second cars serving a plurality of floors, a manually operable, first call registering means for said first and second cars, a manually operable, special service call registering means for said second car, means responsive to a special service call to render said second car nonresponsive to said first call registering means, a car travel indicator for each of said cars, and means disabling said indicator for said second car while a special service call is registered.

8. An elevator system including first and second cars serving a plurality of floors, a manually operable, first call registering means for said first and second cars, a manually operable, special service call registering means for said second car, means responsive to a special service call to render said second car nonresponsive to said first call registering means, and means indicating the availability of the second car for special service in response to the operation of said special service call registering means.

9. An elevator system including first and second cars serving a plurality of floors, a first call registering means for said first and second cars, a special service call registering means for said second car, means responsive to a special service call to render said second car nonresponsive to said first call registering means, means resetting said first call registering means when one of said cars responds thereto, and means preventing the operation of said resetting means by said second car while a special service call is registered.

10. An elevator system including first and second cars serving a plurality of floors, a manually operable, first call registering means for said first and second cars, a manually operable, special service call registering means for said second car, means responsive to a special service call to render said second car nonresponsive to said first call registering means, and timing means to render said second car responsive to said first call registering means after a predetermined special service interval.

11. An elevator system including first and second cars serving a plurality of floors, a first call registering means for said first and second cars, a special service call registering means for said second car, means responsive to a special service call to render said second car nonresponsive to said first call registering means, timing means to render said second car responsive to said special service call registering means for a predetermined interval and responsive to said first call registering means thereafter, and means to reset said timing means in response to the utilization of said car.

12. An elevator system including first and second cars serving a plurality of floors, a manually operable, first call registering means for said first and second cars, a manually operable, special service call registering means for said second car, means assigning said second car to special service in response to the registration of a special service call, a car travel indicator for each of said cars, and means rendering said car travel indicator for said second car ineffective while that car is assigned to special service.

13. An elevator system including first and second cars serving a plurality of floors, a manually operable, first call registering means for said first and second cars, a manually operable, special service call registering means for said second car, means assigning said second car to special service in response to the registration of a special service call, means resetting said first call registering means when one of said cars stops at a location for which a first call is registered, and means rendering said resetting means ineffective in response to said second car while that car is assigned to special service. 7

14. An elevator system including first and second cars, hall call and car call registering means, a first control means operating both cars automatically as a group, a second control means responsive to all car calls and certain hall calls, and manually operable means to actuate said second control means while said first control means is efiective to separate said second car from the group operation and operate it automatically and independently of said first car.

15. An elevator system including first and second cars, a plurality of first control means each operating both cars automatically as a group, means selectively activating one of said control means while maintaining the remaining control means of the plurality deactivated, a second control means, means to actuate said second control means while said first control means is effective to separate said second car from the group operation and operate it automatically independent of said first car, and means rendering said actuating means effective only when certain of said first control means of said plurality are activated and maintaining said actuating means ineffective when other of said plurality of first control means are activated.

16. An elevator system including first and second cars, a plurality of first control means each operating both cars automatically as a group, means selectively activating one of said control means While maintaining the remaining control means of the plurality deactivated, a second control means, means to actuate said second control means while said first control means is effective to separate said second car from the group operation and operate it automatically independent of said first car, and means rendering said second control means effective only when certain of said plurality of first control means are activated and maintaining said second control means inetfective when other of said plurality of first control means are activated.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,624,425 Eames Jan. 6, 1953 

